Wood carver Don Bastian held a tour of his studio as part of the Peninsula Studio Tour on the weekend.
The most eye-catching piece he had on display was a wooden Canadian flag, dedicated to Canadian soldier Nathan Cirillo, on the occasion of the one--year anniversary of his death in Ottawa.
The wooden flag has a single red teardrop falling from the leaf and Bastian said the flag caught the attention of many tour visitors.
On Oct. 22, 2014, Corporal Cirillo was shot at the Canadian National War Memorial on ceremonial sentry duty.
It was Bastian’s wife Denise who pushed the idea forward.
“I think that event touched every single Canadian in some manner and so I wanted to see Don do something to say to every Canadian that ‘yeah we know, we felt it too,’” she said.
“It doesn’t matter how far you were away from the event, you were still at the event,” added Don.
The art work is titled Cenotaph Lost Innocence.
“I’m really trying hard to get that in front of somebody in government,” he told the PNR.
With Remembrance Day around the corner, Bastian said it becomes a little deeper than he even anticipated.
“It just worked its way into my soul when I started it.”